The Tenere 700 carries Yamaha Crossplane 2 liquid-cooled parallel-twin displacing 689 cc and producing 72.4 hp at 9,000 rpm and 68 Nm of torque at 6,500 rpm. Fed by EFI, the Tenere gets power to the ground via a six-speed gearbox and chain final drive.

As befits an adventure tourer designed for use on less than ideal surfaces, the Tenere 700 uses an 43 mm diameter upside-down fork with 210 mm of travel in front and a monoshock at the back that gives 200 mm of travel. Braking is with twin 282 mm diameter discs in front and a single 245 mm disc on the rear wheel with switchable ABS.

Rolling on 21-inch and 18-inch rear spoked wheels, the Tenere is shod with 90/90 rubber in front and 150/70 at the back. Standing 880 mm tall at the seat, the Tenere 700 carries fuel in a 16-litre tank – said to be good for about 350 km range – with 240 mm of ground clearance.

A double-cradle tubular steel frame surrounds the Tenere 700’s engine and mounts the multi-link rear swingarm, with a claimed wet weight of about 205 kg. Lighting is with a four-element LED headlight, as shown on the World Raid Prototype while a monochrome LCD display shows all the necessary information.

In Malaysia, official distributor Hong Leong Yamaha Malaysia offers the Yamaha MT-09 Tracer for the light adventure-touring market at a retail price of RM53,681. Other options in the local market for the adventure-touring segment include the Triumph Tiger 800 XRX and XCX, priced at around RM75,000 as well as the new to the market BMW Motorrad F 850 GS with a rumoured price of around RM78,000.

Coming with diverse and extensive experience in heavy engineering, Mohan enjoys making anything with wheels go fast, especially motorcycles. His weapon of choice is the Desmoquattro engine, and he has a penchant for anything with a dash of Italian design. Strangely enough, he insists he's a slow rider.

2020?!?! Why on earth have they been marketing this for the past 18 months only to release it in 2020? The middleweight market will likely be saturated before they can get this to the showrooms. I was thinking this would be my next bike but I will likely get an Africa Twin or used F800GS before this becomes available.

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